At the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011, the world’s largest aid providers committed to publishing their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) by the end of 2015. IATI is the only international open data standard for publishing aid information that ensures data is timely, comprehensive, comparable and accessible. Whilst progress has been made by some donors, there remain many who have not upheld this commitment.

Publish What You Fund has been tracking the progress of donors with making their aid transparent since 2011, via our annual Aid Transparency Index. The 2016 Aid Transparency Index is particularly relevant as it will coincide with the Busan deadline, so it will assess which donors have delivered on their commitment and are publishing good quality, timely data to IATI. (Our mid-year Review found that several organisations remain off track.)

Data collection for the 2016 Index will start on 1st October 2015 and end on 15th January 2016. As in previous years, we will work closely with donor organisations and our independent reviewers to make sure that the data we collect is as accurate as possible.

For consistency, we will keep the methodology stable, using the same 39 indicators that we have used since 2013. As in previous years, we are only looking at current data (data that is less than one year old and can therefore be used for planning and budgeting purposes).

All organisations included in this year’s Index will be given the opportunity to review the information we collect and to share their feedback during the data collection period. Both the organisation being assessed and an independent reviewer will be involved to make sure our assessment is as objective as possible.

The list of organisations included in the 2016 Index has been revised. We have reviewed our criteria for donor selection and decided to concentrate on fewer, larger donors, as well as those who are instrumental to advancing the course of aid transparency. For this reason, the 2016 Index will include 46 donors, accounting for 98% of ODF (Official Development Flows) between them.

We are excited to welcome a new donor this year: theUnited Arab Emirates. The growing influential role the UAE has been playing in international development in recent years highlights the wider potential for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the importance of transparency in an ever evolving environment.